Tshwane allocates R69-million to upgrade Centurion substations

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21-06-2024
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Pretoria Rekord
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The metro plans to safeguard its substations from unforeseen fires like the blaze that destroyed the Kloofsig substation in December 2021.

The metro has put plans in place to address critical infrastructure maintenance and refurbishment of two Centurion substations.

This comes after funds were allocated for the Kentron and Monavoni substations upgrades to reduce unscheduled power outages and improve economic growth in the area.

R38-million was allocated to the upgrade of the Kentron Substation, and R31-million to the construction and development of the planned Monavoni Substation.

During her 2024/2025 budget speech, finance MMC Jacqui Uys said the city had allocated R20-million to battery surge protection at the substations.

Part of the plan includes safeguarding the city’s substations from unforeseen fires like the blaze that destroyed the Kloofsig substation in December 2021 due to cable theft.

Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said power outages are a national crisis, which not only affects revenue generation but also the overall sustainable development of the community.

He said substation fires have been a concern for the city because of the damage to infrastructure as well as the inefficient and unstable power supply to residents.

“The city has a dedicated team of metro police officers that deals with cable theft across Tshwane,” Mashigo added.

The damage to the Kloofsig substation affected power supply to different areas around Centurion, including Kloofsig, Lyttelton and Barnard Park.

During that time, residents living in these areas experienced frequent and prolonged blackouts due to a network overload when power was sourced from the Waterkloof and Die Hoewes substations.

This put extreme pressure on the two substations, which struggled to cope with the extra load.

Ward councillor David Farquharson said residents in Lyttelton Ext11 and Doornkloof have been experiencing weekly power outages , which has been a huge problem.

He said that though the power outages were reversed quickly, they still remain a problem for residents.

“After the Kloofsig substation was burned, the Barnard Park substation was upgraded to take on the work that the Kloofsig substation used to do,” he said.

“There is a smaller mobile unit doing the distribution that the Kloofsig substation was doing,” he added.

Farquharson said an additional feeder cable was added to the Barnard Park substation, because the single cable was running at a high temperature and would fail due to the load.

Sasol Amkor business owner Nico Bothma said the constant power outages in Lyttelton have been a big issue and caused major problems for his business.

“I had a big generator that I used, but it broke down because of the frequent power outages, which cost me a lot of money to buy another one,” said Bothma.

He said he spent over R10 000 a month on extra diesel expenses so that his business could operate, which came out of his pocket.

“The extra cost affected my cashflow, and with time I could not buy enough fuel supplies. This affected the business because my customers started leaving me, or sometimes when they would come, we would have no fuel at all,” he said.

Bothma said that business almost closed down, but lucky for him, at the beginning of this year, he managed to get another deal with Sasol to get fuel on prepaid, and he was able to get his business running again.

“It’s difficult not knowing what lies ahead, especially with these ongoing power outages, because I always have to remember that I have other business competitors,” he said.

Daniella Le Roux from the Lyttelton Sector 2 CPF said that they work around the clock to ensure less cable theft in the area.

She said there are always patrollers on the road at night, and whenever there is a power outage, a team of officers is sent to patrol the area.

Le Roux said robbers often stole cables and recently started stealing power boxes in the area, which might be one of the reasons for the power outages.

“It’s sometimes very difficult for us because the guys who steal these cables are very dangerous and always come armed,” she said.

Le Roux said they always need to be careful when choosing who they deploy to the field during these times.

“Another problem is that there are elderly people who are on oxygen in the community, so when we have power outages, they don’t usually have money for generators. That is when we have to come in and assist in any way we can.”

She said the power outages happen weekly, the most recent being on June 6 and June 11.